The present invention relates to an apparatus for delivering sheet-like products to a device for processing printed products.
The prior art contains many examples of machines used to transport printed products. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/028,760, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,685, a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/960,589 entitled "Apparatus for gluing attachment slips to printed products" discloses one such apparatus. That application teaches a machine with a belt conveyor, which feeds spaced-apart supplements to a takeover region. The supplements are conveyed past an adhesive-applying device by a transfer conveyor. The supplements are eventually fed to a processing device of a drum-like design. A transfer conveyor lifts the supplement up to the printed products and presses the supplements against the printed products for adhesive attachment. The transfer conveyor utilizes a plurality of flat holders with suction heads or controlled grippers for retaining and conveying the supplements. The holders are pivotally mounted on swivel levers, which are articulated on a wheel-like rotatingly driven carrying member. Guiding bars also engage the holders. The opposite end of the guiding bars is swivel-mounted on the carrying member which is coupled to an epicyclic gear in order to control the swiveling position. In the takeover region, the holders are directed approximately tangentially with respect to their circulating path. During the course of approximately half a revolution of the carrying member by the epicyclic gear, the holders are swiveled through approximately 90.degree.. The holders swivel in the same direction as the carrying member, so that they are then directed approximately at right angles with respect to their circulating path. At the same time, each holder is moved forward in the circulating direction with respect to the carrying member, so as to push the supplement against a printed product deposited astride the saddle-shaped rest on the processing device. The holder then releases the adhesively attached supplement and moves to the takeover region in order to retain another supplement.
Another prior art device for adhesively attaching sheet-like products is disclosed in German Patent DE-A-21 35 303. Two feeding heads, equipped with a gripper device, are fixed to a continuous, circulating conveying member. The gripper devices remove a product from a magazine and firmly hold the same until the feeding heads are set onto the printed products to which the product is to be adhesively attached. The printed products are transported by a processing conveyor which is parallel to the strand of the conveying member and moves in the same direction and at the same speed as the conveying member.
Furthermore, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,982,944 and 4,893,805, as well as corresponding European Patents EP-A-0,312,755 and EP-A-O,305,671, disclose an apparatus utilizing a conveying device with individually controllable grippers, which are arranged one behind the other, to move printed products to a take over region. The transfer conveyor has takeover grippers fastened at regular intervals on a driven endless drawing member. The takeover grippers have a moveable jaw which, in the open position, is swiveled laterally away from the assigned fixed jaw. In the closed position, the moveable jaw assumes the same direction as the fixed jaw. In the takeover region, the transfer conveyor moves in the same direction as the conveying device. The grippers on the conveying device move in the opposite direction of the takeover grippers on the transfer conveyor. This enables the takeover grippers to seize the printed products at their trailing edge and feed them to a winding device which winds them onto a core.
One object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus capable of delivering sheet-like products to different types of devices for processing printed products. Ideally, this objective will be met despite low space requirements.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus with easily controllable clamps.
A third object is to provide an efficient device that ensures secure adhesive attachment of the product to the printed product without damaging the product.
A fourth object of the present invention is to allow transportation of products of varying thicknesses.